Nobody Wants War, But That Does Not Mean There Will Be No War: I Don't Know What Is Going To Happen

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 421, 4 January 1933, Page 2

Nobody Wants War, But That Does Not Mean There Will Be No War: I Don't Know What Is Going To Happen

The RT.

HON.

D. LLOYD

GEORGE

By

!n a speech at the Guildhall, London, October 12, 1932.

THE yvorld is in a queer state, and ;! don't know what is golng t:o happen. It is in a bad state Olf health. "the man who has suffored from ill health loses confidence, becomes morbid, puts his coat collar pp to keep out draughts and says "Shut that wiudow; Close that door.'V He takes ever.y kind of patent medicine to fortify his system, he impedes his circulation, he bnrdeiis his strength; he thoroughly debilitates his heart. That is what is happening to • the world to-day. The nations are drenching themselves with patent medicine and getting weaker and feebler. They are shutting doors* and windows so that no germ from the outside shall come in, and they are getting thoroughly irritable and unreasonable. That is what is the matter with us to-day. ( Let us keep down the barriers between nations, Widen your aspect, take a broad view of humanity :and then you will find peace on earth and good will among men. There are now fnore serious misjunderstandings of the kind that make ■wars than I can recall in the whole !of my life. War organisations are |now more powerful and potent than 'ever tliey were. Nobody wants war, but that does not mean that there will be no war; l remember 1914 vividly, impressively, poignantly. There was no ruler in Europe at that time who wanted war. That may strike you as a remarkable statement for me to make, but I have recently been rereading. the dispatches which passed between courts and chancelleries and between nim bassadors before the war. Reading carefully I have come definitely to the conciusion that there was no ruler in any country that wanted war. There was not one who did not shrink and shudder when he came within sight of the sulphurous abyss. There may have been one or two who wanted a small war, a cheap war, something that brought glory without much sacriflce. @ It demanded greatSr courage to make peace than to make war. There were millions of people who faced all

the horrors of war with inconceivab'.e courage and fortitude, and yet in July and Augiist, 1914, yon could not find two men who had the courage to face the taunts and .ieers which would have greeted them if they had tried to make peace. Thcse in command of the machinery of war in 1914 believed in it, and when the time came there was not a machine that was not fitted with an automatic starter. . The Tsar touched the button of his machine and it rolled on. The Kaiser did the same with his machine and it sped away. 'ihe aged Emperor of Austria, the President of the French Republic, and, in the same way, we in England started the machines. The machines crashed head on, and once they had started no one could stop them. f They crashed into the traffic of civilisation on all the high roads of the world, and we ar© left

vnth ihe debris lo ihis very hour. I tell you that from my knowledge of the machinery of war it is more terrible than it was in 1914, when it very nearly wrecked civilisation. War, always an assassin. has to-day become a poisonsr. There are quarrels going on Inr Europe which will end in war unless there is greater courage and determination, and a gi-eater readiness to face risks on the part of the rulers of the world than is at pr^scnt apparent. Y/c hsve outlawed war; have we not the Kellogg Pact? We remember the love feasts of' Locarno. Fifty-six nations signed a document solcmnly declaring that there shall be no more war. Since then the cost of preparations for war have gone up steadily year by year

i here must be no more war and there must be no more preparations for war. The iPrime Minister of Fraiice h eoming here to talk with our Minis ters. I can only say God speed the® but God help them, too, because it js' a pretty terrible business, frightfuhv tangled. As far as I can see there is a proposal of the Freiich PrimQ ister that the surplus arms of the world shoukl he put in a seriea of safe deposits in different countrieg of Europe. I say God help the stree iu which the safe deposits are. 1 should have thought on the whofe that instead of building great storagecf that kind to immure the surplus guns the best thing would be to flesiroy them. You do not want any more Kell0» Pacts or Locarno Pacts. It is not; ne» pacts that we need, but the perfor®. ance of the old ones. ^ I was one of the signatories to Treaty of Versailles — one of the foaj 1 framers. I am quite prepared to fend it wisen the occasion demanij, I TTvat treaty ought to be carried out a; j a whole. We gave a guarantee to Ger • many that if she disarmed in accoii. { ance with the conditions of the Treaty we should follow their example.- % have not done it. When that document was signed the majority of the signatories had no intention of carrying it 'out. Before the ink was dry they w«e making arrangements for creatltig new armies, and they have created them. They have bo!rrowed money to equip them. I remam. ber that saying of Carlyfe; ^ iies end Hn broken heads," That s is the danger of Europe to-daj^ The Germans feel quite frankly tfe 0 they have been deceived, che^ttt f There is no greater perii for the "■ of the world than a people who sn justxy cCTLgiy at treatinent |tt e the last man to put in a plea for (fe r many; she brought upon. hei$e{i j s terrible disaster and very terriWy^ y she paid for it.^But having giveq^ e word when she was prostratA Sfe t- principle of honour flemandg y should carry ^ out faithfullj, ously, chivalrously.